The Pope, whose arrival in Havana marks the start of a nine-day tour of Cuba and the U.S. , is considered to have played a major role in facilitiating the moves having facilitated a back channel for talks between Cuba and the USA in 2014.
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Francis, who is credited with helping nudge the two nations toward a rapprochement, said the gradually warming relations between Havana and Washington “fills us with hope… after years of estrangement”.
But the pope will use a humble, albeit chauffeured, Fiat to zip among his Manhattan appearances, which include prayers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral Thursday night and visits on Friday to the United Nations, the 9/11 Memorial, an East Harlem Catholic school and Madison Square Garden, where he will celebrate Mass.
In this May 10, 2015 file photo, Pope Francis meets Cuban President…
A few days ago, I wrote about some of the guests who had been invited to the White House reception in honor of Pope Francis. Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate Via AP …
READ: Pope Francis’ real challenge to Washington’s pols: Be politicians, not partisans! FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images …
Raul Castro – who like his brother and former revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was baptized as a Catholic and educated by Jesuits – was expected to greet Francis at the airport.
Thousands of people lined the road into Havana from the airport, which was decked out with giant posters of the pope.
In his speech at the airport, Raul Castro pledged that Cuba would “welcome you with profound affection, respect and hospitality” and praised the pontiff for meeting with him last May at the Vatican “to exchange ideas on some of the most important issues related to the world we live in”. He also urged further backing for Cuban Catholics “so that the church can continue to support and encourage the Cuban people in its hopes and concerns, with the freedom, the means and the space needed”.
“We have worked to ensure that his visit is memorable, that it be a visit such as Pope Francis deserves, given his pontificate, his positions which arouse admiration in Latin America and the Caribbean, and among our people, and given that he is the first Latin American Pope”, said Rodriguez during a press conference on Wednesday.
“In many cases, political systems have come under global pressure that has resulted in change, and that’s what needs to happen with Cuba”.
The church in Cuba, he said, has two missions: “One is to heal, and the other one is to restore faith in the possibility of a life here in this country”.
He will host mass in the Plaza de la Revolución on Sunday morning, the same place that John Paul II held his historic mass in 1998, and that afternoon, he is slated to meet President Raul Castro. Of course not. This is the enormous pettiness of the man, who seeks to embarrass his guest to make a domestic political point about “tolerance” and “diversity”.
Fellow student Ngueubou Kamwa also wants to know if the Pope has a phone, but also what he does with it.
Also expect messages, both spoken and subtle, on how the United States should deal with its island neighbor 90 miles away, said Allen, the Crux editor.
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When Francis arrives in Havana on September 19, he’ll find his church ministering to more Cubans than at any time since the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.
